‘Project Runway’ returns
It’s kind of fun to check out “Project Runway” (8 p.m., Lifetime, TV-PG) as it enters its 16th season. Particularly because I haven’t thought much about the show since its fourth season or so.
On many levels, it remains unchanged. Heidi Klum still hosts and brings her bracing combination of effervescence and no-nonsense attitude. Her German accent lends a brisk efficiency to her emphatic “in or out” approach. Just the sound of Klum uttering the words “Nina Garcia” reminds me of a chop saw cutting through a two-by-four.
Tim Gunn remains the wise, warm mentor. He’s so smart that I remain embarrassed for him when he has to do all the product placements. One gets the sense that everything down to the toilet paper in the “Runway” mansion has been licensed, and poor Gunn has to drop its name and acknowledge its sponsorship as he welcomes the contestants to use it.
To my untrained and fairly indifferent eye, this group of contestants seems to be more diverse than in the earliest seasons. Hey, there’s even a set of twins! But the real change in season 16 arrives with the models.
To use the delicate terminology provided by the show’s publicity department, these women are “size-inclusive.” In plain English, that means that they don’t resemble the usual gaggle of semistarved stick figure mannequins the fashion industry normally imposes on its public.
We’re told early and often that the models range from size 0 (whatever that means) to size 22, a number, I assume, that implies some degree of avoirdupois. Some designers may have a problem wrapping their minds, or draping their fabrics, around the new challenge.
This being reality television, the designers and their creations will face the toughest critics of all: celebrities and semi-celebrities popping up like so many of Tim Gunn’s product placements. They include Demi Lovato, Katie Holmes, Olivia Munn, Yolanda Hadid, Kate Upton, Maggie Q , Kelsea Ballerini, Dove Cameron, China Anne McClain, Carly Chaikin, Maddie Ziegler and Asia Kate Dillon.
Has China ever met Asia before? You’ll just have to tune in to find
out.